An interview with Ali Taylor

Anna Smith practises her life drawing with the help of erotic artist Ali Taylor and finds out what makes the classes at Coco De Mer so enjoyable...does it have anything to do with the free champagne, we wonder?

  'I just draw pictures of ladies in pants''You were terrified when you first started, notes artist Ali Taylor of my first foray into erotic drawing. A bit of an exaggeration, I think, but still, I'll admit I was a weeny bit nervous sitting down for Ali's first 'erotic life drawing salon' in hip lingerie boutique Coco De Mer. It wasn't the erotic bit that I had a problem with - I've always loved browsing at Coco De Mer, with its gorgeous £800 corsets and kitsch leopard print gimp masks - it was the art bit I was worried about. I hadn't drawn for 20 years, and was only ever OK at art in school. And tonight, my fellow students were three experienced artists, their lawyer friend and a teacher who, it turns out, was blatantly lying when she said she didn't really draw.

Still, the champagne started flowing and the model, Jordan, looked fab, so I settled down to sketch her in all her corseted glory. With a little help from tutor Ali, I managed to produce something very similar to my secondary school art classes, albeit slightly naughtier. You know the sort of thing: thin lines, poor perspective, botch job on the hands. But as Ali strode in-between us in her fitted 40s-style garb, easing Jordan into more and more erotic poses and us into more and more inebriated confidence, something weird happened: I started to enjoy myself. My final picture, as Ali kindly said, was really quite good (if you don't hold it up next to the ones done by the proper artists, anyway). I learnt not to worry about accuracy, but free my imagination. I scribbled away, I felt quite liberated and I produced something that I wasn't embarrassed to show my friends in the pub afterwards.

Mission accomplished, I tell Ali later. 'Yes, the idea is for people to take away something really unique and beautiful, a one-off memory, something they created,' she says. The small group size helps create the right atmosphere, she explains. 'I wanted it to be small, six to eight people, so I could give everyone my attention.' Ali also reveals that she designed the setting to be 'theatrical' - no great surprise given her background in film and television directing. After making a short film for Channel 4 four years ago, her directing talents have been as in demand as her paintings: bold, provocative pictures of women in various states of undress. 'My parents were both artists,' she says, explaining how she grew up in a liberal artistic environment. 'When we were kids my mother would paint these huge plates with naked women on them. So she isn't phased by my art, in fact she sells it in her gallery.'

What type of people buy Ali's art, then, I wonder? 'A lot of lesbians buy my work, interestingly,' she muses. 'I suppose it's not a very male view. Equally when couples buy it, it's usually the woman who instigates the purchase. One lawyer bought one of my pieces at an auction, she was really cool.' I ask why Ali always draws women rather than men. 'I find their bodies more interesting to draw,' comes the simple answer. 'Women are more interesting to look at.'

With her focus on female sensuality, Ali's work has invited inevitable associations with the burlesque scene. But while she namechecks successful burlesque model Dita Von Teese (Mrs Marilyn Manson) and has designed flyers for burlesque events, Ali tells me doesn't see herself as burlesque by definition. So does she see herself as an erotic artist, then? 'Other people have pigeonholed me as being an erotic artist,' she muses. 'I just think I draw some pictures of ladies in pants.'

See www.coco-de-mer.co.uk for details of future salons and www.artshole.co.uk/alitaylor.htm for examples of Ali's work.

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